Online courses and digital products for sale

A digital product costs almost nothing to deliver again, so margins can be high. The key question is how sales happen. Many course businesses live on launches, where the owner opens enrolment a few times a year and makes most sales in a few weeks. Others sell steadily all year through search, ads, a marketplace or an automated email sequence. Ask for monthly sales over at least two years, and see how much came from launches and how much came in on its own.

Then look at owner dependence. If the owner’s face, voice and name sell the course, the audience will not necessarily follow a new owner. A product that stands on its own with a neutral brand, a solid catalogue and a traffic source that does not depend on one person is easier to take over. Ask how many hours the seller spends on support, updates and marketing.

Digital products are usually priced on profit. Sitavo’s indicative range is 2–3.5 times annual profit (SDE: profit plus the owner’s own salary and one-off items), cross-checked against 0.8–2 times revenue. Steady sales without new launches and low owner dependence point to the top of the range. Sales that only arrive with launches, or that depend on the owner personally, pull it down. These are general market ranges, not a guarantee. Use the price estimate and the market data for the category.

• Monthly sales with launches marked.
• Refunds and chargebacks relative to sales.
• Traffic sources: search, ads, marketplaces, email list and social media.
• Fixed costs: platform, email software, hosting and ads.
• The email list: size, open rate and consent.

• Exports from the payment system or platform that match the accounts.
• Rights to the content: were videos, text, graphics and code made by the seller, employees or freelancers, and have the rights been assigned in writing?
• Licences for fonts, stock images, music and other third-party elements, and whether they cover resale.
• Platform terms: can accounts, shops and reviews move to a new owner?
• The email list: how consent was collected, and whether it covers a new owner (GDPR).
• Customer access to purchased products and any promises of lifetime access or updates.

Sales figures and customer lists are confidential, so sellers usually share them in a data room behind an NDA. See also the pre-purchase checklist.

In an asset purchase you usually take over the product files, the rights, domain and website, platform accounts, the email list and the payment setup. Some platforms and marketplaces do not allow an account to change owner, in which case the products must be moved to a new account — check the terms before you make an offer. Agree how existing customers keep access to what they have bought. VAT on digital services sold to consumers in other EU countries follows special rules, so have an accountant review how the business has handled it. Agree a transition period where the seller helps, and read more in the handover guide.

Messaging sellers and making offers on Sitavo is free, and price and terms are agreed in the deal workflow. The purchase price is paid directly to the seller — Sitavo never holds the money and does not provide financing. See also communities and newsletters for sale, plugins for sale and content sites for sale.